Shares & the stock market

19 March 2026

In the past year, AJ Bell investors have changed course: instead of putting their money across the pond in the US market, they’ve been bringing their funds home.

While last year saw DIY investors withdraw large amounts of money from the North American funds sector, AJ Bell data also showed notable withdrawals from UK All Companies sector funds...

19 March 2026

The rise in oil and gas prices has sparked fears of a 2022-style inflation crisis reemerging, with energy costs set to rise as the war in Iran continues.

A repeat of this could be painful for investors because 2022 saw both equities and bonds experience negative returns for the first time since 1977. This meant even portfolios which were...

19 March 2026

The Fed and Bank of England are in a state of limbo while they wait to see if the Middle East crisis will trigger a long-lasting inflation shock.

There was no change to US rates last night and the Bank of England may also sit on its hands today. There simply isn’t enough data to make an informed decision on whether to put up rates to deal with the...

18 March 2026

Talk of a deal between Iraq and Turkey to restart oil supplies has helped to calm financial markets.

This provided some relief to investors on the edge of their seats amid worries about disruptions to oil supplies. While the news helped to nudge down Brent prices by 0.5% to $102.89 a barrel, getting the commodity value significantly lower still...

18 March 2026

You may have spotted the big collapse in share prices of software and data companies in early February 2026.

This followed the release by ChatGPT rival Claude, a chatbot owned by Anthropic, of a specialised AI tool for the legal industry.

This saw many companies which were previously perceived as AI winners go into reverse; but just how much ground...

17 March 2026

The UK stock market is known for a being a handy source of dividends, but within this overall picture, certain sectors do a lot of the heavy lifting.

The FTSE 100 is forecast to provide a dividend yield of 3.4% for 2026. According to AJ Bell’s Dividend Dashboard report released in December 2025, just 10 companies are forecast to pay out 54% of the...

17 March 2026

The FTSE 100 ticked higher and outperformed some of its counterparts as oil continued to climb .

The longer the oil price stays above $100 per barrel, the louder the alarm bells for the market over inflation risks. Iran’s continued attacks on regional energy infrastructure are helping to keep crude at elevated levels.

The FTSE 100 has a large...

16 March 2026

The FTSE 100 ticked higher at the start of the week as its material weighting towards energy continued to offer some ballast during the Iran conflict.

Oil prices were higher again and Asian markets were lower as fighting in the Middle East rumbles on. By the time markets opened in Europe, oil was a little off its highs for the session. Over the...

13 March 2026

US markets continued to be volatile this week, buffeted by continued tensions in the Middle East and rising oil prices.

Concerns that the conflict will last longer than expected have put upward pressure on US 10-year government bond yields which moved back above 4.2%, their highest level since mid-January.

Consumer prices remained stable in...

13 March 2026

If the past two weeks of conflict in Iran have caused some nerves about your investments, you are not alone.

Even though market volatility can be stressful in the moment, history has shown it often turns out to be more of a blip than a significant change.

The market movement we’ve seen from events in the Middle East has been relatively subtle so...

13 March 2026

Financial markets showed signs of frustration that the Iran conflict continues to rage on.

European and Asian equities were in the red and the US looked set to follow in the same path when Wall Street opens for trading later.

Oil held firm at high prices, while gold lost its shine as investors offloaded liquid assets and the metal suffered from a...

13 March 2026

Investors might have been surprised at how supposed lower-risk investments haven’t provided complete protection as the Iran conflict unfolded. But they aren’t meant to, and it’s an important reminder that diversification is vital when investing.

Research by AJ Bell found that only money market funds and shares in non-life insurance companies have...

12 March 2026

The past two weeks have shifted inflation expectations from a gradual float down towards the Bank of England’s 2% goal, to another steep climb, and back again to somewhere in the middle as the market attempts to predict what will happen next in Iran.

This is a near impossible task. The recent spikes in anticipated levels of inflation have been...

12 March 2026

Once again the FTSE 100 was protected from the worst of the falls on Thursday as its higher exposure to the energy sector helped support the UK stock index.

Nonetheless, UK stocks were still in the red as investors reacted to ongoing disruption to energy markets from the Middle East conflict. Oil prices surged through the $100 per barrel mark for...

11 March 2026

Dips and dividends were the key trends for AJ Bell DIY investors responding to Middle East conflict-driven market volatility last week. There were twice as many buy trades than sells between 2 and 6 March, implying that investors saw an opportunity to buy companies or funds at depressed prices.

While there remains considerable uncertainty around...

11 March 2026

The situation in the Middle East has had a dramatic impact on global energy markets. In the space of just 24 hours on Monday and Tuesday, Brent crude oil traded as high as $120 per barrel and at less than $90 per barrel as expectations about the duration and intensity of the conflict waxed and waned.

Reopening the strategically important Strait of...

11 March 2026

The relief rally which took hold after comments from Donald Trump that the Iran war was close to ending has proved as short-lived as a mayfly’s lifespan.

While investors have not returned to the panic mode seen at the start of the week, with extraordinary swings in the oil price and plunging market values, there is genuine trepidation.

Reports Iran...

10 March 2026

The Iran conflict has created considerable uncertainty in the markets for investors to navigate. But how can we take the temperature of the market and compare volatility to where it has been during other periods of turbulence for stocks.

A popular measure used by professional investors is the Vix. You may have seen this referenced in reporting...

10 March 2026

The market is in highly speculative mode thanks to the absence of any certainty about what the next few days, let alone weeks will look like.

In these circumstances, Donald Trump’s comments about the Iran war ending soon have been seized upon like water offered to someone who’s just consumed a full bag of salty crisps.

The levels of volatility in...

9 March 2026

The Iran conflict intensified over the weekend and oil briefly going above $115 a barrel has caused another bout of selling on financial markets.

Tipping over the $100 a barrel level has major implications from a psychological and economical perspective. It significantly raises the chances of a sharp jump in inflation and interest rates shifting to...

6 March 2026

US stock markets were under pressure this week in response to the conflict in the Middle East with most of the losses seen in the benchmark S&P 500 index and the smaller companies Russell 2000 index.

The Nasdaq Composite showed resilience, gaining just under half a percentage point, led by continued support for big technology companies.

Despite the...

6 March 2026

The US and Israel’s attacks on Iran have caused considerable uncertainty for the world and led to unusually large movements across financial markets in a short space of time. While the human cost of any conflict is paramount, as an investor, it’s important not to panic in this situation. In general, shares went down, and oil went up.

The 17% rise...

6 March 2026

Markets displayed resilience in the face of events in the Middle East, with the FTSE 100 ticking higher on Friday.

This comes after mixed trading in Asia and with futures pointing to small gains on Wall Street later. Concern about inflation remains elevated with oil prices on course for their largest weekly gains since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine...